Abundance of community support feeds to success of 2023 Paris Christmas Hamper program

To the Editor:

Our 2023 Christmas Food and Toy Hamper program was very successful The community graciously supported by way of food, toys and monetary donations which helped support approximately 172 families.

Thank you to the Paris Fairgrounds for donating their excellent facilities. GM Amy Warner was very kind in supplying our group with all essentials needed to make our event run smoothly Also, thank you to all our local schools for promoting the children to help donate non-perishable items.

A special thank you to Paris Optimist club, Paris Legion, Paris Lions, St George Lions, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Johns Lodge #82 Paris and Enbridge Gas company for their generous donations and support.

A special thank-you to Paris Firefighter Matt Amy and OPP Cst. Conrad Vitalis who organized the "Fill a Vehicle" program where our local Firefighters and OPP designated two weekends in December to collect toys, food and donations at five local grocer locations including Sobeys, No Frills Paris, Foodland Burford, Foodland St. George. As well, gratitude to the Cainsville Fire station for their boot drive and the Paris Fire Fighters who collected toys at our local Canadian Tire. Thank-you to all the locations that placed Christmas boxes in their businesses collecting items for our cause. Thank-you to the Paris Community Service Office for supplying residents with applications and receiving donations

Also, we appreciate the families and businesses who sponsored nine of our families.

We would like to thank the Paris Independent, Expositor, Paris Chronicle, St. George Lance, Ayr News and County of Brant for all their great efforts in printing our requests to help make our program visible to all readers.

Lastly, thank you to our committee members and volunteers who worked so diligently, dedicating their time to help before, during and after the week of Dec. 17-22 to see our worthwhile project through to completion.

We look forward to Christmas 2024.

Our sincerest warm thanks.

Shirley Simons, Laura Bowlby, Marg Knill-Wilson, Cherish Gamble, Tawnia Martel, Lisa Lewis, Anne Rutt, Ken Johnston, Matt Amy